Facebook has added a new global feature to its existing Covid-19 information alerts that will display the recency of an article before you share it and offer links to trusted resources.
The feature is an extension to the alert it implemented in June that warns you if you are going to share an article over 90 days old.
In an updated blog post Facebook said the addition was to “help people understand the recency and source of the content before they share it,” although the post doesn’t warn users that they might not want to share it. Twitter is testing a feature that basically tells you off it if can tell you haven’t read an article when you go to retweet it.
It’s an example of a social media company trying to be seen to stop the spread of misinformation, as the sharing of unsubstantiated articles fly around their networks unchallenged.
Facebook has a coronavirus misinformation centre on its News Feed but it is not available globally. Despite the platform’s insistence with such features that it is trying to stop the spread of misinformation, it is facing a monumental uphill battle such is the way it is set up to work.
Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.